6 Strange Things That Happen to Your Body Right Before an Emotional Crisis

Technically, a nervous breakdown is classified as a stressful situation that results in a person’s inability to function normally in daily life. Nervous breakdowns are usually caused by stress and anxiety when a person feels overwhelmed in some aspect of their life. Work, relationships, and social stress can all cause mental depression.

It is important to note that a nervous breakdown is not a medical problem; the name itself is not a medical term. However, it may be a sign that certain mental issues need to be addressed and resolved. It’s both your mind and body’s way of telling you that you’ve reached a limit.

Here are six things that happen to your body right before an emotional breakdown:

1. Irregular heartbeat

A nervous breakdown can be identified by several physical symptoms, but an irregular heartbeat tends to be the most common. During a nervous breakdown, you may feel like your heart is pounding, making it difficult to breathe. This can make the problem worse and it will be difficult for you to calm down.

2. Tension headaches

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Stress and anxiety can cause severe headaches. They can manifest physically and our desire to keep everything inside causes tension in our bodies.

Eventually, this tension moves to the head and causes pain. If you find yourself slouching or not walking straight, try correcting your posture and giving your neck muscles a break.

3. Irregular sleep

When you’re stressed, it can be difficult to get a good night’s sleep. Not getting enough sleep can have serious consequences on your health. According to neuroscientist Matthew Walker, who directs the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory at UC Berkeley, “the less sleep you get, the shorter your life.” The World Health Organization and Walker both recommend about eight hours a night as a baseline, and Walker says he himself insists on “a strict eight hours.”

Walker argues that regularly sleeping just six or seven hours a night can seriously harm your health and emotional stability, and make it harder for your body to fight off viruses like the common cold. “A single night of 4 or 5 hours of sleep could reduce the number of natural killer cells in your body by about 70 percent,” Walker explained.

Sometimes severe stress can cause you to sleep too long. You might wake up feeling like you didn’t sleep well or like you want to stay in bed all day. Insomnia can keep you awake for hours, wake you up several times during the night, or wake up too early.

4. Stomach aches

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Stress, nervousness and anxiety can cause chronic stomach pain. Your digestive system is directly linked to your mental health, so when it’s not working, it’s likely because your brain is also struggling to function.

Irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, is triggered by the immune system’s response to excessive levels of stress.

5. Inability to concentrate

Another sign of a nervous breakdown is the inability to concentrate. Your mind has been focused on too many things for too long and it is now impossible to concentrate on any particular task.

Stress has the power to increase storage space in the brain and help you focus, but chronic stress has the power to have the opposite effect. In severe cases, stress can begin to destroy the brain’s ability to retain memory.

6. Anxiety

Anxiety is caused by fear, usually intense and chronic. Anxiety makes it almost impossible to see beyond the present moment due to a feeling or sense of paralysis.

Phobias are usually associated with anxiety, because fear itself causes stress. Prescription medications for anxiety are not uncommon, but it’s always best to try natural remedies like yoga or exercise before going that far.

Dr. Tarra Bates-Duford, psychologist and expert with the American Psychotherapy Association, explains how the signs of anxiety that lead to a nervous breakdown “can vary and be different from person to person.” Regarding treatment, depending on health concerns, she recommends exploring alternative treatments like yoga or regular exercise and getting enough sleep.

“Nervous breakdowns are more likely to occur when a person is experiencing intense stress, experiencing significant changes in their life that the person has been unable to adapt to, or facing challenges that “were not negotiated or made unusually high demands that became emotionally and physically taxing for the individual,” Bates-Duford explained.

Exercise is one of the best things you can do for your physical and mental health, and recent research backs this up, indicating that exercise can improve your mood, concentration, attention, and even memory.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, there is a way to get help. Call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or text “HELLO” to 741741 to be connected to the crisis text line.

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